“The Night of the Worms”

page 253

My Cowboy Knight, My Boaz

The Night of the Worms

“Excuse me, did you say worms?

A few evenings after I was home from the hospital, I sat my hurting rear atop a pillow on the kitchen chair. Jim’s beautiful, silvery dog walked by. I said, ‘Uh, honey, there’s something white hanging out of the dog’s butt.’

As my wonderful veterinarian husband glanced at her hindquarters, he replied casually, ‘It’s a tapeworm.’

I had only finished half of my meal, which actually tasted really good, but my jaw dropped as my stomach turned. Because of his sense of humor, I thought he was teasing me, as was often the case.

He picked the worm off her rear with a tissue and threw it in the trash.

I’m sure I had wonder and question in my eyes. I stared at him waiting for more information.

‘She has tapeworms,’ he calmly pronounced.

How can this be? A veterinarian’s dog has worms? A dog so loved by her master that the mutual admiration is immediately known by anyone who sees them together?

I could not eat another bite. I wanted to. I just wasn’t able. As a science major in college, I had studied worms and their life cycles. Instant flashbacks of worm pictures and worm anatomy flooded my mind.

But they’re on our dog, in our house?”

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How did this, yet another adventure, turn out?
What happened to the dog, the worms, and Lucky the cat?
How did Annika, the dog get the tapeworms?
How did Jim’s handling of this prove again he was a knight in shining armor?

… pages 253-256 My Cowboy Knight, My Boaz